April Update

Holy cow, guys! I have been kicking my resolutions' asses this last month!

Lol - April Fools. I have been pretty much the same.

1. Eat healthier, be more active, lose weight. Definitely have gotten better. Eating more at home and less out and about. Cutting drive-thru fast food completely out, cutting back to starbucks on Sundays only. Once the weather continues to be nice, being more active will be a breeze. I actually spent 30 minutes outside cutting my front lawn today, so that was a nice change of pace with activity.

2. Read more. - Nope. (COME ON, RACHEL)

3. Save more money. LOL LOL LOL. So a couple weeks ago I was driving to meet Kurt for lunch. Driving behind a big moving van/truck that decided to stop their truck and throw it in reverse. They didn't see the Tiny Car that had been following them for 2+ miles. WHAM! Crushed the whole front of my car. A week or so later, I find out my Tiny Car has officially been totaled. So the whole, "save more money" dream turned into "now you have a car payment and your car insurance will probably increase and you have to pay over a thousand dollars in taxes". The good news is that I was able to get a brand new car (2015 Subaru Forester) that I can afford (hello, overtime pay). I definitely would not have been able to sell or trade-in my Tiny Car for as much as it was totaled out for, so although I was incredibly unprepared for this to happen, it is kind of a blessing in disguise.

I have also totally been kicking butt on my savings challenges. I found one where you put 5% of everything you spend in your savings account. So I go through weekly, add up everything I have used my debit card on, come up with 5% of that total and transfer it into a savings account. It ends up being about an extra $15/week in savings (ends up being almost $800 in savings/year!) I found one on pinterest where you put a certain amount/month in savings and at the end of the year, you end up with $1,050 in savings.

Dave Ramsey says you should have one savings account with $1,000 in it. That account is for emergencies. I should probably have that.

I also found a money-tip blog that has a link of 8 savings accounts people should have. ... I'm lucky that I have two. (When I opened them, one was to save up for annual vet bills - two dogs + cat = not cheap. and the other was for vacation funds.) Now I need a couple more, apparently.

4. In fact, I'm trying to use more of what I already have. SO MUCH BETTER AT THIS. I haven't bought anything new for my shower in almost a year. I haven't bought laundry detergent in forever (I think one of my roommates left a big ole thing of laundry detergent, so I'm just riding the wave). Using what I have in my cabinets/pantry and buying less groceries because of it. (At least I'm kicking butt on ONE of my resolutions).

5. Ahhh. My house. 2015 will be the year of succulents in pots at my house. I have recruited Emily to help me come up with some cute arrangements for my bigger pots. Right now, I have a couple in the kitchen and one in the living room. Kellianne will be moving into the basement in a few months, so I kind of need to light the fire to get that worked on and ready for her.